It's official. Seattle's Sunny Day Real Estate couldn't wait around for their bassist Nate Mendel (who's in the Foo Fighters) to find time to work on the band's next album, so the band has decided to go ahead without him. The group has just begun auditioning bass players and hopes to enter a studio in April to record their third album, tentatively slated for a fall release on Sub Pop.

As you may recall, Sunny Day Real Estate broke up after recording their self- titled second album in 1995, and Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith joined the Foo Fighters shortly thereafter. The band decided to reform around the time Goldsmith left the Foos in the fall of 1997, but only on the condition that Mendel would rejoin the band as well. According to Sunny Day's manager, Greg Williamson of Williamson Management in Seattle, Mendel told Dave Grohl he quit the Foos and told Sunny Day Real Estate that he wanted to rejoin the band in December. However, he changed his mind and promised Sunny Day that he would still record with them.

"The band was supposed to start recording in September or October last year but Nate was never able to do it because of Foo Fighters stuff," says Williamson. "We've been waiting about six months for him, and the band decided they couldn't wait around any longer. William was getting frustrated too because he wanted to get away from the Foos, so he didn't want Nate to be in the Foo Fighters and Sunny Day Real Estate at the same time, so we asked him to choose between the two. We're all really bummed about it."

Williamson is hoping to find a new bass player in the next month in time to begin recording in April.